Resorts, country clubs, municipal recreational facilities, cruise ships, convention centers, theme parks, museums and so forth often have many recreational options. Such options may include theatrical presentations, rides, restaurants, fast food facilities, classes, parties, meetings, exhibition halls, pools, tennis courts, horseback riding, and so forth. Operators of such facilities often have a number of reasons for controlling and/or monitoring use of and or access to their facilities, and the various attractions located therein by patrons.
At the present time, in a typical facility, one or more individuals are present at the entrance to the venue hosting the attraction, event or other offering. These individuals check persons wishing to enter the attraction venue, requesting and/or collecting and/or ripping tickets in half.
Tickets to facilities, such as amusement parks, are often purchased on the Internet. However, due to the fact that multiple tickets can be printed, consumers are generally provided only with an identification number or alphanumeric. When the individual arrives at the attraction, he or she presents the reservation number at a kiosk where specially printed tickets are provided. Typically these tickets are collected and ripped in half at the venue. These specially printed tickets have a format which is largely unknown to the individual attending and offering and which may be difficult to copy.
Such systems suffer from multiple drawbacks. For example, the cost of personnel at the entrance to the venue is high. Moreover, for quality of service reasons, multiple personnel are often employed at the entrance to the venue. In addition, the possibility exists that reservations may be made and resold by “scalpers”. Individuals may even swap tickets once they enter the facility, posing a security risk. Likewise, numerous security risks are presented at an airport terminal and aboard aircraft.
Given the longstanding recognition that it is desirable to track usage at a facility, for many years numerous solutions have been proposed and implemented. For example, using a rubber stamp and ink to identify individuals who have paid a fee is something which has been done for at least 50 years. Other possibilities may involve selling tickets for cash, providing unlimited access to all facilities, for example in a convention center, or other expedient. The possibility also exists to use RFID technology which has been used in a wide variety of venues, such as transit systems. However, tickets, RFID identifiers, and the like have the disadvantage that they can be transferred to other persons. Moreover, in the case of tickets or RFID identifier devices associated with unlimited use, a single one of the same may be shared by multiple individuals, one of whom is using the ticket while the other is perhaps traveling to town, and then vice versa, reducing the income of the facility operator, and or posing a security risk.
Despite their drawbacks and limitations, tickets and rubberstamps applied to the skin of the user remain the only significant methodologies used for identification of individuals.